Would you like to put yourself in this pioneering picture? ZBGC is seeking a project officer with a passion for tackling the problem of suicide among sex and/or gender diverse (SGD) young people.

You will educate service providers about the issues that SGD young people face. This will involve working with a range of other agencies that provide services to same-sex attracted and SGD diverse young people.

You will be a great communicator who can work autonomously, manage your own time and build collaborative relationships.

Wages and conditions: Victorian Public Health Sector (Health and Allied Services, Managers and Administrative Officers) Multiple Enterprise Agreement 2009-2011, Grade 4. Part time 0.3 EFT (2 days per week) (above award rate of $35/hour) plus 9% superannuation. Attractive salary packaging available.

The role is based at Western Region Health Centre in Footscray, with some travel to regional Victoria.

This is an exciting opportunity to make a difference. Download a position description and selection criteria at http://gendercentre.com/participate/jobs/ or for further queries, please contact the ZBGC Working Group (email contact@gendercentre.com; voicemail +61 3 9660 3990).

Applications close on Friday 27 April, 5pm. 

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Here’s a recent photo of some members of the ZBGC Working Group and TGV Committee. We had just finished having a good meeting. Also featured in this photo is the Memorandum of Understanding between ZBGC and TGV!

Pictured from left to right: Brenda Appleton (TGV), Lisa Sinclair (ZBGC), Gem de Marco (ZBGC), Tom Cho (ZBGC) and Sally Goldner (TGV)

Related posts:

• Funding win for Victoria’s sex and gender diverse community hailed as an “historic first step”
• Premier’s announcement of measures for the GLBTI community forgets the “T” and the “I”

Does your organisation work with or have plans to work with same sex attracted and/or sex and gender diverse (SSASGD) young people (aged 14 – 25 years)?

The HEY Grants, a brokerage and innovation small grant round, have been established to assist organisations in providing mental health promotion and capacity building activities for SSASGD young people in their local communities. The Youth Affairs Council of Victoria is administering these grants on behalf of the Victorian Department of Health.

Grants of up to $40,000 are available in this round. There is a total fund pool in this round of $186,235. There will be three further grant rounds in 2012, 2013 and 2014. The total allocation over the four years is $762,000.00.

What are the HEY Grants for?

Mental health promotion and community engagement activities that focus on SSASGD young people, aged between 14 and 25 years. The HEY Grants are intended to assist in the development of new and innovative approaches to address and support the mental health of SSASGD young people. By innovative we mean creative, novel, or original ways of working with young people.

Small grants will be distributed to (both specialist SSASGD and mainstream) organisations that aim to develop new ways of engaging SSASG young people in the design and delivery of a range of initiatives such as (but not limited to):

• Social support groups and networks;
• Mainstream anti-homophobia, anti-transphobia and diversity campaigns and programs;
• SSASGD youth leadership, mentoring and peer education;
• Engaging with the emerging SSASGD youth platform to improve the quality and reach of services they provide to SSASGD young people.

How does my organisation apply?

Download the grant guidelines and application form from here:

http://www.yacvic.org.au/sector/detail-participation.chtml?filename_num=399235

Applications must be received by the close of business on Friday March 2nd 2012. Applicants will be notified in April 2012 of the results of the grant round.

All inquiries should be directed to the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria by email gferrari@yacvic.org.au or pdo@yacvic.org.au or phone 03 9267 3799

All grant applications must be sent to:

info@yacvic.org.au (email preferred)

Or hand delivered or posted to:

HEY Grants
c/o YACVic
Level 2
180 Flinders Street
Melbourne Vic 3000

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• Funding win for Victoria’s sex and gender diverse community hailed as an “historic first step”
• ZBGC receives a GLOBE Community Grant

Tickets are $15 (adults) /$8 (under 12s) and all proceeds are donated to ZBGC. Here’s some of the spiel from the official event website:

Get on board for the queerest thing to hit Australian Roller Derby: Battle on the Bent Track 2012!

On January 28 2012, Vagine Regime Victoria will be taking on Vagine Regime NSW to see which queer All Stars team reigns supreme. The showdown will be taking place at Melbourne’s Puckhandler’s stadium from 6pm. Who will take home the title? And most importantly, who will win the Pants-Off Dance Off?

Check out the official event website!
Check out the event on Facebook!
Buy your tickets!

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ZBGC regularly receives queries from people in outer Melbourne and regional Victoria who are seeking resources. In particular, these queries are among some of the most frequently-posted questions to our Questions and Answers website. The Q&A site has received queries from the Mildura region, the Mornington Peninsula, Melbourne’s outer south eastern suburbs, and elsewhere.

So how can you help?

• If you know of any resources in outer Melbourne and/or regional Victoria, help us get them listed in our online Resources Directory. Encourage the person or group in question to submit their details using our Suggest/Update a Resource form. Directory listings are free
• Spread the word about this call-out to as many people as you can. Whether it’s via email, tweeting, blogging, posting to Facebook, telephoning or good old-fashioned face-to-face sharing – pass the word around!

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• Two new fact sheets
• Seeking IT volunteers with an interest in supporting the health and wellbeing of sex and gender diverse people!
• ZBGC’s new and improved Questions & Answers website
• ZBGC’s new Community Calendar: A much-needed guide to what’s on!
• Community Calendar added to our website

• “Psychiatrists, Psychologists & Counsellors: What’s the Difference? compares psychiatrists, psychologists and counsellors in terms of their work with sex and gender diverse (SGD) people. It’s a useful resource for SGD people who are unsure about the differences between these types of practitioners
• “How Many People are Gender Diverse?” contains valuable information on how many SGD people are in Victoria.

These new fact sheets, like all ZBGC fact sheets, are downloadable as PDF files.

To check out all of the fact sheets that ZBGC has produced, please visit the Fact Sheets section.

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• Wanted: Details of resources in outer Melbourne or regional Victoria
• Seeking IT volunteers with an interest in supporting the health and wellbeing of sex and gender diverse people!
• ZBGC’s new and improved Questions & Answers website
• ZBGC’s new Community Calendar: A much-needed guide to what’s on!
• Community Calendar added to our website

Zoe Belle Gender Centre (ZBGC) and TransGender Victoria (TGV) have welcomed the allocation of funding to ZBGC for youth suicide prevention in the GLBTI community as an “historic first step” for Victoria’s sex and gender diverse population.

As announced by Mental Health Minister Mary Wooldridge last Friday, ZBGC was one of seven community organisations awarded funding as part of a $4.5 million package for the GLBTI community. ZBGC will receive non-recurrent funding of $146,000 over 4 years. The funding will enable ZBGC to assist health service providers in reducing suicide and self-harm rates among young gender diverse and gender questioning people.

TransGender Victoria spokesperson Sally Goldner said today:

 “This is the first time a transgender organisation in Victoria has received government funding. It is therefore an historic moment for our community – one that we hope will pave the way for further government support in the future.”

Echoing Ms Goldner’s comments, Tom Cho, spokesperson for Zoe Belle Gender Centre, hailed the funding announcement, while noting ZBGC’s ongoing efforts to seek funding support:

“Young sex and gender diverse people are among some of the most vulnerable members of the Victorian community, and we welcome the Government’s support to address this problem.

“We are greatly encouraged by this historic first step, and we will continue seeking funding to address the urgent needs of the sex and gender diverse community – most especially, funding to establish a permanent, full-time gender centre in Victoria.”

The need to establish a community-run and controlled gender centre in Victoria has been discussed within the local transgender community for decades. Over the past four years, ZBGC and TGV have been lobbying for the establishment of such a centre. ZBGC and TGV thanked the individuals and organisations that have helped them to reach this point, adding that Victoria’s sex and gender diverse community is one step closer to achieving this goal.

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• Premier’s announcement of measures for the GLBTI community forgets the “T” and the “I”
• ZBGC and TransGender Victoria
• HEY! New grant fund for same sex attracted and/or sex and gender diverse young people
• ZBGC receives a GLOBE Community Grant

Our long-term goal is to establish a permanent physical space for sex and gender diverse people in Victoria. We are continuing to work towards this goal alongside our vitally important work of providing services to the community now. One of the primary ways we are supporting the community is via a ‘virtual gender centre’ at http://gendercentre.com/

Do you have the necessary IT skills to support ZBGC’s pivotal work? We are now seeking volunteers to provide IT support services to users of ZBGC’s website and members of the ZBGC Working Group. Reporting to ZBGC’s IT Coordinator, volunteers will undertake such tasks as maintaining and upgrading ZBGC’s IT systems, resolving technical issues, and providing assistance to end-users.

Volunteers must reside in Australia, be available for ~3 hours work per week, and be able to commit to providing prompt turnaround of assigned tasks.

For further information, including a position description, please email Alexis (ZBGC IT Coordinator), at it@gendercentre.com

Applications close 5pm, Friday 7 October 2011.

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• Wanted: Details of resources in outer Melbourne or regional Victoria
• Two new fact sheets
• ZBGC’s new and improved Questions & Answers website
• ZBGC’s new Community Calendar: A much-needed guide to what’s on!
• Community Calendar added to our website

We’re extremely sorry for the inconvenience. As the upgrade was instigated by our website hosting service, it was beyond our control.

Given the situation, we’ve decided to switch to a new and improved Questions and Answers site. 

This site uses a new system that has many great features that the original Questions and Answers site lacks, including:

• anonymous answering. This feature has been requested by many people. At last, you can answer questions without registering for an account or signing in!
• ‘all activity’ page. See at a glance all the recent activity on the site
• displaying of ‘related questions’ so you can better draw on the knowledge that’s already been contributed to the site
• a shared account with ZBGC’s blog. This means that you can use the same account to both use this Q&A website and comment on the ZBGC blog
• …and much, much more.

And don’t worry – we plan to keep the original Questions and Answers site for the medium term at least. It will be an archive of all the valuable knowledge that everyone has contributed. We want it to continue to benefit others! So, for this reason, we’re still working as fast as we can to restore access to the original Questions and Answers website. [Update:The original Questions and Answers website is now publicly accessible! You can visit it here but please post all new questions, answers and comments at our new site.]

If you have any queries (including questions about how to use this new site), please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re here to help you as best we can. The best way to reach us is via email:

resources [AT] gendercentre [DOT] com

Check out the new site here! We hope you enjoy this new and improved site!

Related posts:

• Wanted: Details of resources in outer Melbourne or regional Victoria
• Two new fact sheets
• Seeking IT volunteers with an interest in supporting the health and wellbeing of sex and gender diverse people!
• ZBGC’s new Community Calendar: A much-needed guide to what’s on!
• Community Calendar added to our website

Zoe Belle Gender Centre is running this workshop specifically for people of all genders and sexual identities interested in these topics. And you don’t specifically have to be in a relationship to attend.

With psychologist Vikki Sinnott facilitating this safe and supportive space, you’ll be able to raise any issues around sex and relationships with sex and gender diverse people.

Whatever your personal, sexual or gender identity, you are welcome to attend this workshop.

Potential Topics of Discussion

• Reactions – the many different ways people become aware of their partner or lover’s gender identity, and the responses
• Sex & sexual identity – how sexual dynamics change within relationships, and partners’ and lovers’ questions and explorations of their own sexual identities
• Support – the needs of the partners and lovers of sex and gender diverse people, which are not always easily met; where and how can you get support?

Limited Seats

This event is limited to 30 people so please RSVP quickly to reserve your spot!

Event Facilitator: Vikki Sinnott

Vikki Sinnott is a psychologist whose experience and interest includes gender identity and sexuality issues. She has provided individual therapy to sex & gender diverse adults and young people, and to their familes, partners and significant others. Vikki has facilitated a number of one-off and on-going discussion groups for partners of sex and gender diverse people both in Victoria and NSW.

Event Details

3rd July 2011, 3 – 5 pm

Drummond Street Services
195 Drummond Street
Carlton VIC 3053 (view map)

Wheelchair access from Ormond Place

Cost: $10 or whatever you can afford!

RSVP: RSVP by 27th June 2011 to rsvp@gendercentre.com

This Zoe Belle Gender Centre event is proudly supported by Zoe Belle Gender Centre and Drummond Street Services

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• Listen to an interview with Vikki Sinnott
• 9 Aug: Workshop for Partners/Lovers of Sex & Gender Diverse People
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• A workshop and other goodies coming your way…